Practice begins Wed. for 15th Annual Petit Le Mans

CHESTNUT MOUNTAIN - Practice begins Thursday at Road Atlanta for the 15th Annual Petit Le Mans, with qualifying and the first of several preliminary races scheduled Thursday.

The Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The race is 1,000 miles or ten hours, whichever comes first.

ABC-TV's broadcast of the race begins at 1 p.m. Sunday. Full, live coverage starts at 11:15 a.m. on ESPN3.

The race was founded by Road Atlanta owner Don Panoz and first run on October 10, 1998 as part of the IMSA season. The 1999 edition was one of the original events of the American Le Mans Series. This year will mark the 2nd Annual Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which connects the races in North America, Europe and Asia.

In addition to the overall race, teams of two or three drivers per car compete for class victories in four different classes of cars, two for Le Mans prototypes and two for grand tourer cars. Class winners of this event receive an automatic invitation to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.